Sudanese Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani is set to leave Baghdad heading to the United States on an official visit, with many questions surrounding his upcoming visit to Washington, especially regarding the issues to be discussed during the visit, including the presence of US forces in Iraq and the bilateral discussions surrounding it, amid the calm resulting from the cessation of armed attacks by militias against US bases in Iraq and Syria.
Two days after the US State Department’s statements that the security and defense partnership between the United States and Iraq would be an important part of al-Sudani’s talks in Washington, but it would not be the main focus of the visit, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani left the capital Baghdad today, Saturday, heading to the United States on an official visit.
It was planned for Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to visit Washington to meet with US President Joe Biden on April 15th, where this visit marks al-Sudani’s first visit to Washington since taking office in Baghdad in late 2022, and press reports indicated that it was delayed due to US objections to the formation of his government.
A statement from the media office of the Prime Minister, received by “Al-Alam Al-Jadeed,” said, “The Prime Minister left the capital Baghdad heading to the United States of America, at the head of a governmental, parliamentary, and private sector delegation, at the beginning of an official visit upon an invitation from US President Joseph Biden.”
A Foreign Ministry official confirmed on April 10th that al-Sudani’s visit would not witness any radical changes in the relationship between Baghdad and Washington, but he added that the visit would include discussions on the issue of the coalition forces and the US presence in Iraq, and the issue of US financial sanctions on Iraqi private banks, as well as cooperation in various security and economic fields.
Baghdad and Washington are holding joint talks to withdraw the international coalition forces from Iraq, with the first round held on January 27th, and the first round resulted in an agreement to form a joint military committee to review the mission of the coalition and end it, in addition to transitioning to bilateral security relations, and the committee started its work on February 11th.
The visit of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to the White House and his meeting with US President Biden have been delayed for a long time, and perhaps this delay has made the issues that the two sides are supposed to discuss more complicated, given that it comes in tense circumstances in the Middle East, and the overlapping issues of the relationship between Iraq and the United States with the complications of the war against Gaza.
This meeting may be limited to protocol ceremonies and the exchange of photos and public speeches on major issues, and perhaps it carries important messages for what Washington wants from the Baghdad government in the coming period of its tenure, or the possibility that the al-Sudani government will benefit from it in discussing complex issues with the US administration, which is headed by the comprehensive restructuring of the Iraqi-American partnership, as described by the US Embassy in Baghdad.
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